Features

World Championships 2007 Day Two

Sunday, 29th April 2007

Jim 'Tambo' Piper gives us his take on the action from Day Two of the IIHF World Championships.

CANADA 3 GERMANY 2

The second day started with one of the favourites, Canada playing newly promoted Germany. Canada are without many of their NHL stars and Germany are missing the influential Jochen Hecht and Marko Sturm who are still on Stanley Cup duty.

Germany were hoping to take advantage of Canada’s usual slow start to the championships and took the game to them early on. A dangerous high hit on Yannic Seidenberg earned Sea Weber a 5 plus game as early as 1:19 but the Canadians easily held out for the full 5 mins of penalty kill. Canada were beginning to pin the Germans back in their own zone but were shocked at 9:51 when Christoph Ullman ( one of my men to watch) drove to the net off the left wing and brought a fine save from Roloson, took his own rebound and scored openside. Canada refused to panic and slow workmanlike hockey brought the equaliser with only 1:21 left of the period. Cory Murphy passed from the corner right onto the stick of Jaal mayers who only had to redirect the puck past Kotschew to score. End of the first 1-1.

Germany were stunned with only 53 seconds of the second period gone as Barret Jackman found Eric Staal, who faked a shot to put Kotschew on his backside and tucked the puck into the net. This German team are no quitters and equalised within a minute when Dietrich let an easy shot go from the red line and Roloson made a complete hash of it , watching the puck sail passed him stick side. This gave the Germans some self belief that they could pinch something from the game and the period ended with them on top, however with no addition to the scoreboard.

Canada stepped up a gear in the third and Kotschnew staked his claim to be Nr 1 by some fine goaltending. Unfortunately he also gave up a howler on 51:42 as he mishandled the puck on a walkabout behind the net and Chimera picked up the loose puck and tossed it in front to Mayers who scored into the empty net.

This was a tightly contested game with Germany often taking the game to the Canadians and just falling short at the end.

SWITZERLAND 2 LATVIA 1

This was always going to be a tight affair between to fairly evenly matched teams and so it proved in a somewhat boring first period. Both teams only managed a total of 9 shots on goal in a very defensive first 20 mins.

The second period was much more interesting and Naumovs had to be sharp to deny Vuclair early on. Just before the mid point of the game, Latvia took the lead as Berzins centred to Darzins, who fired a grounder through Hiller’s legs. Switzerland woke up after this and laid siege to the Latvian goal and equalised on 33:50 when Wichser was first to a loose puck in the slot and wristed a flier under the crossbar. Latvia were now on the back foot and the Swiss took the lead with 50 seconds left in the period. Wichser, again involved set u Jeannin in the slot and the latter got off a quick shot to surprise Naumovs for the go ahead goal. End of 2 and its 2-1 to the Swiss.

Switzerland closed the game up in the third and Latvia were reduced to probing for an opening. On the powerplay with 10 mins left, Latvia created three good chances with Tamijevs hitting the side netting and two glorious chances for Semjonovs in front of the net went begging. Latvia pulled the goalie with 34 seconds left but were unable to even get a shot on goal. Final score 2-1 to Switzerland.

A tight, somewhat tedious game with the points deservedly going to Switzerland. The battle of the fans definitely went to the noisy Latvians whose pounding drums drowning out the Swiss fans.

SWEDEN 7 ITALY 1

Sweden totally dominated this game, despite losing an early goal to the Italians, finishing with 50 shots on Carpano in the Italian goal.

With Martensson in the box for an early penalty, Italy took the lead on 3:22 as Giorgio de Bettin one timed a beaut from close range to score. Sweden looked shocked and nearly fell a second goal behind as Wallin nearly put the puck past Backlund. Sweden were badly misfiring and managed to squander a long 5 on 3 around the mid point of the period. Italy seemed untroubled by Sweden’s attack until just under five minutes left when Johan Davidsson fired a high shot frop the top of the left face off circle past the helpless Carpano. The goal seemed to remind Sweden of their task and after Nicklas Backstrom drew a penalty on the very next shift, Sweden calmly set up a goal from Fredrik Emwall. End of the 1st and 2-1 to Sweden.

Martensson ended the game as a contest on 23:40 when he roofed from close in on the net. Three further goals in four and a half minutes from Bremberg, Davidsson and Hedstrom. 6-1 with over half the game to go and Sweden seemed to think that was job done and sat back for the rest of the period.

The third was largely uneventful as Sweden only added 7 shots to their tally of 43 in the first two periods. The scoring was completed on 52 mins when Per Hallberg scored a powerplay goal to make the final score 7-1.

SLOVAKIA 3 NORWAY 0

Slovakia, many pundit’s dark horse for the title, opened their account against Norway in the day’s final game. Slovakia have a first rate attack and a fine goalkeeping duo in Hallak and Krizan and no team can afford to take them lightly.

Norway, however are a gritty team and held their own for the first ten minutes of the contest. With 12 minutes on the clock Slovakia took the lead when Uram rifled a shot past the screened Grotnes for 1-0. 51 seconds later and it was 2-0 when the giant Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins threw a shot on net that bamboozled Grotnes, who let the puck bounce through the five hole. That was it for the first and a shot count of 10-3 showed the Slovakian dominance of the game.

The second was one way traffic as Slovakia shot from all angles on Grotnes. However scoring seemed to be difficult and the score had to wait until 17:39 to chalk up goal number three. Martin Strbak scoring on the power play to make it 3-0.

Norway actually managed to outshoot Slovakia in the third but never really troubled Jaroslav halak who earned a shutout in his debut in the championships.

Not as many goals as yesterday , but an entertaining days hockey nevertheless. All teams have now played their first game and should have blown the cobwebs out as they strive for a place in the second round.

See you tomorrow!

Tambo